4. POLICY, PLANNING AND INSTITUTIONAL MECHANISM

4.1. National forest policy
4.2. Laws and others rules

4.1. National forest policy

In the early 1950s during the colonial days, the mandates of the forestry services were limited mainly to the protection and utilization of the forests areas and their products as well as the development of plantations. The legislation was said to provide reservation of forest parks for regeneration, production, utilization and protection of forest resources.

The forest policy and legislation of 1976 and 1978 respectively, placed more emphasis on the role of the government for the protection, conservation and development of the state owned forest parks and all other forest resources. As a result, government’s efforts at sustaining the conservation role, controlled legal utilization and other functions of the forest parks including the communal forest areas (known as state forests), under the tenure of the communities, have registered limited success with the exception of the mangrove ecology.

The inadequacy of these policy objectives for the protection, sustainable management and utilization of forest resources has been realized. Thus recently much progress has been achieved in the revision of the forest policy giving due consideration to peoples’ active participation in forest management and the country’s policy objective in environmental and socio economic development. Unlike the previous policy, the new policy has also taken cognition of the nature of forestry problems as well as the role that forestry is expected to play in national economic development. It also identified the policy goals, orientations and requirements not only to effectively manage the resources but also to equally build the capacities of all stakeholders of the resources.

The current forest policy aims at increasing the number and area of managed forest parks and reducing the total area of unmanaged state forest through community involvement. The main current forestry policy goals are as stated:

• To reserve, maintain and develop forest resources covering at least 30 % of the total land area which is designated for environmental protection through: minimizing soil desiccation and erosion, improving and conserving biodiversity, managing river bank stability (mangroves) and protecting the swamp lands.
• To ensure that 75% of forest lands are managed and protected according to sustainable forest management principles in order to increase forest resource base.
• To ensure that sufficient supply of forest products needed by both urban and rural population is available through the rehabilitation of forestlands and the establishment of fast growing plantations and woodlots.

The draft Act and Regulations also take account of the policy objectives, strategies and farmers’ right, social and physical factors that would affect forest development, as well as the relative and absolute area of forests, population density and existing land uses.

4.2. Laws and others rules

Table 4: Laws, enforcement texts, Policy, Programs and actions on forest genetic resources management

Laws, enforcement texts, Policy, Programs and actions	Year
Land Act	1991
National Environmental Action Plan (1992-2001)	1992
Politique de population: grande priorité à la gestion environnementale	1992
National Environmental Management Act	1994
Définition d’une politique forestière. Goal: protection, gestion et exploitation des ressources forestières	1994
Convention on biological diversity	x